Individual Details

Miscellaneous

After his mother married Judge John B. Finley, Edwin L. Lawrence lived on Harrison Creek, about ten miles west of Jefferson, Texas. This area is now under the waters of Lake O' The Pines.
A notation in the old Slayton Family Bible indicates that he lived in Hickory Hill.

Miscellaneous

Edwin L. Lawrence frequently talked about the difficult years in Jefferson following the end of the Civil War. This history from Lawrence and related Families helps us understand the circumstances facing Edwin L. Lawrence and his family after he returned home from the war.

"The South was placed under military rule after the Civil War and a large military force was stationed at Jefferson. The men who fought for the South were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote, according to Edward [Edwin], in telling the story to his grandson, my father.
"The military built a 55 foot by 137 foot stockade by placing large logs upright in the ground and standing eleven feet high. Walkways were constructed around the top so the prisoners could be guarded. Soon, the stockade was kept full as the military arrested any and all men who had a leaning toward the South and this led to the famous Stockade Trial. George Washington Smith, a carpet-bagger from New York, and Judge Robert Caldwell, were the two
most responsible for the trouble. Smith organized the negroes into the "Legal League", harangued the whites at their meetings, had all roads patrolled and whites were often arrested, brought to a League meeting and insulted and abused."
"ludge Caldwell came to Texas just before the war and was violently opposed to secession. At one time he said to the negroes that Jefferson should be burned and not long afterwards there was a disastrous fire that destroyed about one million dollars worth of property. After the war, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and moved about a mile or so out of Jefferson on the Daingerfield road. He and Smith made radical speeches and the whites became afraid of his influence over the blacks. In 1868 there was a riot in Jefferson resulting in much bloodshed and another fire in 1868 consumed four blocks in the business district. Blacks were blamed for the fire."
"In October of 1868 Smith and a posse of blacks went out to the house of Richard A. Figures to arrest him on a charge of taking some saddle bags from Smith's wagon but friends of Figures assembled, a fight occurred and two of Smith's men were wounded. Meanwhile, the disenfranchised whites, in order to not be run over by Smith and the blacks, organized themselves into the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the Rising Sun.
"Smith and three of the blacks were arrested and placed in the jail at Jefferson. Hearing lynching rumors, Captain James Curtis placed a military guard of one officer, one sergeant, one corporal and eight privates around the jail yard. On the night of October 4 at 9 P.M. about forty men disguised and well armed appeared and demanded the surrender of the guards. The guards did surrender and were disarmed. The men then went inside, killed Smith, carried the blacks to the west side of town, killed two of them and wounded the others. Some of the mob went to Judge Caldwell's home but he could not be found."
"The result of all this was the military began arresting whites and torturing them in order to make them confess. Since they were disguised the night of the murder, no one knew just who was in the mob. They were brought to trial on May 26, 1868 and were defended by thirteen lawyers, including Major W.E. Penn a prominent lawyer in Jefferson and son-in-law of Olivia Wakefield King Lawrence."
I give you the above information because the family remembers that their grandfather, Edward [Edwin] L. Lawrence, had said on numerous occasions that there was a lot of trouble going on at Jefferson at that time and he thought he had better leave since he was an ex-confederate soldier.
[The version passed on to the Ernest Lawrence family included that Edwin L. Lawrence was running away from the carpet-baggers when he left Jefferson.]
There was no thought that Edward [Edwin] was involved in any of the trouble but the military was arresting any and all ex-confederate soldiers and anyone who favored the South in any way. Remember, he married in July 1867, and all this was happening around him. Many people left Jefferson during that time. Jefferson, at that time, was one of the principal cities in Texas."

Marriage

Per Lawrence and Related Families, The marriage records of Marion County, Texas, show a marriage license for E.L. Lawrence and Lucie C. Slayton was recorded in Book A, page 90, on 6-29-1867, and the marriage was performed by R.W. Thompson on 7-3-1867.

Miscellaneous

When Edwin L. and Lucy Lawrence arrived in Coryell County, Texas, they first settled on a small creek about three miles southeast of Flat.

Miscellaneous

The second and final Coryell County residence of the Edwin L. and Lucy Lawrence was purchased on 12-26-1888, 133 acres in the Dexter Survey at Mound, Texas.

Miscellaneous

Edwin L. Lawrence describes his Civil War experiences in a letter he wrote in 1914. Following is an excerpt from Lawrence and Related Families relating his story.
"he entered the service of the Confederate States of America in April of 186j, just two months after Texas seceded from the union on February 1, 1861. His first service was in the Indian Nation and
in Missouri. His regiment was formed in Grayson (County, Texas) and was known as the 9 th Texas Cavalry under Brad Simms. They were dismounted at Duark (?), Arkansas and were sent east of the Mississippi River to reinforce General Albert Sidney Johnson...
He...was with Johnston at Corinth and at Shiloh where Johnston was mortally wounded.
He never got back home until after the war and never had a furlough although he did have ten days leave about the last part of the third year. His buddy, Sam Stuart, and he wanted to find some place where the armies had not been and after the third day's travel
they found such a place and were invited to attend a dance that night. "Sam and I washed our faces and tried to put on our best looks in our camp worn grey which was somewhat the worse for wear, as old sister Jeff Davis's family had grown so large and her means were about exhausted so she couldn't furnish us with a new suit anytime we needed one."
They danced until midnight before the locals learned that he "was born with a fiddle in his hands"; he then played the fiddle and the dance "went on til nearly day." The next day Miss Jennie, the
girl he had danced with most of the night, made him a new shirt and he rode back to camp and he was in the thick of the war again."

Alt name

Name is spelled various ways throughout family papers, on photographs, and in federal census reports. Edwin Lysidus was used for his Confederate Pension application and therefore is used as his primary name.